Word with Screen Reader: Selecting Text

Hello, my name is Vikki Vaughan. Today we will discuss using shortcut commands to select text. Word processing applications like Microsoft Word are some of the most frequently-used applications in our daily lives.

In the writing process, we often find that we need to move, delete, or rearrange a word or phrase. One of the advantages to using a word processing application like Word is that we can easily edit blocks of text with simple keyboard commands.

The first step in the editing process is selecting the text. Once it is selected, we can store it on the clipboard. The clipboard is a short-term storage area for all kinds of information that you've copied from one place and you plan to use in another place. We can store copied text as well as images, videos, files, and folders.

From the clipboard, we can insert the information into various Microsoft applications. This action is called pasting. Please see Hadley's video entitled Cut, Copy and Paste for details regarding cutting, copying, and pasting text. In our previous video, Undo Redo, we examined selecting an entire document with simple keystrokes.

Today we will use Windows shortcut commands to select smaller chunks of text such as paragraphs, sentences, and words. On our desktop, we have an opened Word document entitled The Declaration of Independence. Let's use it to explore some of the many ways we can select text. If you'd like a refresher on how to locate and open a document on your desktop, please refer to the Hadley video entitled Navigating the Desktop.

Many of the keyboard commands that we use to select text use the shift key. Whenever we hold down the shift key while pressing any cursor navigation key such as our arrow keys we are selecting or highlighting the text. This means that Windows recognizes that we wish to perform a certain action to any text that we manually highlighted. To select paragraphs or even parts of paragraphs we combine our control key and shift and the up or down arrow keys.

Let's select the next paragraph in our document by placing our insertion bar at the beginning of the paragraph and press control plus shift plus down arrow. Let's try that now.

VoiceOver: When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which.

Vikki: Our insertion bar is positioned at the beginning of the paragraph and we press control plus shift plus down arrow to select the entire paragraph. I pressed control to silence. Our paragraph is selected and the insertion bar is positioned at the end of the paragraph. Let's press the right arrow to unselect our paragraph.

VoiceOver: W.

Vikki: Similarly, control plus shift plus up arrow will select all of the text from our insertion bar to the beginning of the paragraph. If we're at the beginning of a paragraph, this command will select the previous paragraph. Let's try that now, control plus shift plus up arrow.

VoiceOver: When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for.

Vikki: I pressed control to silence. Once again, our paragraph is selected and this time the insertion bar is positioned at the beginning of the paragraph. Let's press the left arrow to unselect our paragraph.

VoiceOver: W.

Vikki: Now, let's explore selecting a line in our document. If we are in the middle of a line and we wish to select the text to the end of the line, press shift plus end. This command selects all of the text from the point of our insertion bar to the end of the line. Let's try that now. Our insertion bar is in the middle of a line and we press shift plus end.

VoiceOver: Of human events it becomes selected.

Vikki: Our screen reader read the selected text and informed us that this portion of the line is selected. Let's press right arrow to unselect.

VoiceOver: N.

Vikki: Similarly, shift plus home will select all of the text from the insertion bar to the beginning of the line. Once again, we'll start from the middle of a line, then use our command, shift plus home.

VoiceOver: Necessary for one people selected.

Vikki: As we heard, our screen reader announced the selected text. We'll press the left arrow to unselect.

VoiceOver: N.

Vikki: If we wish to select an entire line we navigate to the beginning of the line with the home key, then use shift plus end to select from the beginning to the end of the line. Let's try that now, home key, then shift and end keys together.

VoiceOver: A, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal selected.

Vikki: Our screen reader announced the whole line and informed us that it is selected. Let's press left arrow to unselect the line.

VoiceOver: A.

Vikki: Our next command allows us to select an entire word. Our insertion bar is positioned at the beginning of a word and then we use the keyboard shortcut of control plus shift plus right arrow to select one word to the right. Let's try that command to select the next word, control plus shift plus right arrow.

VoiceOver: Among selected.

Vikki: If we wish to select more than one word, continually hold down the control and shift keys while repeatedly pressing and releasing the right arrow. With each press of the arrow key, another word is selected and announced. Let's try that now. I'll hold down the control and shift keys and press and release the right arrow three times.

VoiceOver: The selected, powers selected, of selected.

Vikki: As we heard, our insertion bar moved to the beginning of each selected word and it was announced by our screen reader. You can also select previous words by using the shortcut control plus shift plus left arrow. As with our other selecting commands, each selected word is announced and our screen reader announces selected. Let's try that now by pressing control plus shift plus left arrow.

VoiceOver: Assume selected, to selected, and selected.

Vikki: I'll press the left arrow once to unselect all three words.

VoiceOver: A.

Vikki: Notice how when we use our arrow keys to unselect a passage, our screen reader only announces the next character. It does not read the unselected words. There are times when we wish to unselect words and have them read to us as we unselect them. To accomplish this task, we press control plus shift plus the arrow in the opposite direction.

For example, if we selected the next two words with control plus shift plus right arrow, we would use control plus shift plus left arrow to unselect them. Let's try that now. I'll select the next two words with control plus shift plus right arrow.

VoiceOver: And selected, to selected.

Vikki: And then I'll unselect them with control plus shift plus left arrow.

VoiceOver: To unselected, and unselected.

Vikki: Our screen reader will announce only the words, not the spaces or punctuation between the words. Keep in mind, you can also use the simple method of using the arrow keys to unselect a passage but the unselected words will not be announced. If we are in the middle of a word, we can also use the same command of control plus shift plus our arrow keys to select from the insertion bar to either the beginning or the end of the word.

For example, control plus shift plus right arrow selects from the insertion bar to the end of the word. This might be helpful when editing a word's prefix or suffix. Let's try that now. I'll use my arrow keys to move to the middle of a word.

VoiceOver: O-N-N-E-C-T-E.

Vikki: Then press control plus shift plus right arrow.

VoiceOver: N selected.

Vikki: As we heard, only part of the word was selected. I'll use the left arrow to unselect.

VoiceOver: E.

Vikki: Now we have arrived at our smallest unit, the character. When we wish to select a character, we simply press the shift and right or left arrow keys to select one character to the right or left.

VoiceOver: C selected.

Vikki: Each selected character is announced by our screen reader. The insertion bar is to the left of the announced character. If we wish to select more than one character press and hold the shift key while pressing the arrow key to select the additional characters. Let's try that now. I'll hold down the shift key and press the right arrow several times.

VoiceOver: O selected, N selected, N selected.

Vikki: You can unselect a group of characters in the same way that we unselected single characters, by either pressing the left or right arrow key or by holding the shift key and pressing the opposite arrow key. I will press the left arrow key to unselect the characters.

VoiceOver: C.

Vikki: With these helpful tips, you can use Windows shortcuts to select text for editing purposes. I'm Vikki Vaughan and I thank you for joining me today.